Monday, March 28, 2011

Lets Be Politically Incorrect

That’s right, I am going to be politically incorrect. I am going to say that a lot of the problems we have in Winnipeg, and a lot of the crimes we are dealing with have to do with Aboriginal people. We have a large population of Aboriginal youth committing crimes. We have a downtown that is becoming too dangerous to visit. And we see no end in sight.

Now that there is a Federal election on the horizon I got to thinking. The way I see it, it is the Federal government that can fix the issues we have. They can make changes to the Young Offenders Act, they can change the way the court system deals with offenders, and they can hold Chiefs more accountable for their communities.

And I got to wondering what the Treaties had to say about the responsibilities of the Aboriginal Communities. It turns out that the Chiefs of the communities who signed Treaty One do have a responsibility to maintain “perpetual peace between themselves and Her Majesty’s white subjects, and not to interfere with the property or in any way molest the persons of Her Majesty’s white or other subjects” (http://www.canadiana.org/view/30387/0315, p316). The other numbered treaties have similar clauses. The Federal government needs to go back to the numbered treaties and hold the Chiefs accountable to ensure their community members are upholding the laws of this land. The members of the communities in the numbered treaties who “interfere with the property or in any way molest” people need to be disciplined and/or rehabilitated by their own communities.

Have you ever heard that “We are all Treaty People”? Well, we are. And the crimes and violence occurring by Aboriginal people in this city is a Treaty Issue that needs to be dealt with according to the writings of the numbered treaties.

5 comments:

Wow, you came out swinging! Good for you. This is stuff we say in private but won't say in public because we are scared of being called racist. So we all suffer in silence. I include Aboriginal people in this group.

Most of their chiefs should be in prison. The corruption and nepotism on the reserves is staggering. Their people suffer without running water and with bad housing and these guys have nice houses in the city and fat bank accounts. They also get to travel to Ottawa and stay in nice hotels to bug the gov/t and play "hard done by".

I wish we could all "grow a pair" and make them accountable to their people and to us.

Of course this is a result of the treaties, be them fair or unfair. They were signed and we have them. But it is the responsibility of those who signed them to uphold them. And the Chiefs of each of the communities that signed the treaties agreed to ensure the Aboriginal people under them would be law abiding and cause no problems to "Her Majesty’s subjects". I do not see that. All I see is Chiefs spending money on themselves and communities going without water, and proper housing, and community members running amuck without community governance.

When I was in University, Aboriginal communities wanted the ability to govern themselves and the ability to have their own community courts. Well, it looks like the treaty allows for Aboriginal community courts, or actually demands them.You may think this is a racist blog post. It is not racist, it is just not politically correct. There is a difference.